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Year in Review: Manitowoc zoo black bear bit off womans fingers

MANITOWOC An Asiatic black bear at Lincoln Park Zoo bit off all or parts of four fingers from the hand of 47-year-old Tracy Weiler of Manitowoc on March 5 after she reportedly went past barriers and was trying to feed the animal.

Work Hard, First And Foremost: Why "Working Smart" Is Thumbing It's Nose At Work Ethic

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If you're not grinding and busting ass daily, someone else will, and someday you'll both meet.

If you've been alive for the past 50 years you've probably heard this more than once, "Work smart...not hard." Productivity gurus will pound this bit of advice along with affirmations, visualization and every other idea out there that distracts us from going out and getting it done.

I have to admit, I always liked the idea of working smart. Making money without any real sweat or pain involved. Yet, something about, "working smart, not hard" never sat right with me at a gut level. I read books like 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris who talks about building an income you can maintain by investing very little time. These kinds of productivity books always emphasis how important spending more time on hobbies and friends were than work. These people seemed to have their shit together, and what they said seemed to make sense. Why work hard when you can make money easily?

Maybe it was the fact that I never accomplished anything before without working really hard, or that I noticed that, everyone who was succeeding worked really hard. I worked like a dog just to get under average grades in high school, I had to push like hell to make my first $2500 in one month in my own business, I devoted hundreds of hours(literally hundreds!) of painful studying to pass an insurance exam. Some of it was dumb luck, but none of that dumb luck came until I worked really hard. If only I would have ignored this lie the personal development community is so eager to shove down our throats, work smart not hard. I'd be so much further down the road. Can you imagine? Sure, now those lazy teens that don't want to get a job don't have to, all they have to do is work smart.

"You can't just go to planet earth and just do what you love, who's going to build our cars and pave our roads? It's about the hard work and the sweat." - paraphrased Gene Simmons

Those lazy teens grew up and brought their work ethics to the workplace:

Somewhere along the line we got the idea that working hard wasn't fun any more. To spend hours in an office or lounging around at home was more appealing. What scares me is that the younger generation is going to grow up, and we're going to tell them, "Don't work hard, work smart" or "Work softer not harder." Are you kidding?

Suhaimi, was right on the money when he said:

"Working hard is the sign of growing up. Children and teenagers don't like to work hard because it is not considered cool to study all the time. Even top students try their best to hide the fact that they study a lot, so they would be considered a "slacker genius" by their friends. Being a "slacker genius" is a social asset among schoolkids, while being a "nerd" is so not cool. That is the work ethics for children and teenagers, and that's why they are not in charge of anything important."

He then goes on to add:

"Unfortunately, some people bring that kind of work ethic to their workplace. They want to appear to be competent, without actually working hard."

Ever work at a job where you shivered every time the boss came around? Why was that? Did you think he was going to fire you on the spot for the way you looked? Was he going to shoot you with lightening bolts and eat your brains? Most likely, the reason we hate the boss is because he wanted work to get done, and you weren't getting it done!(Even though there are a lot of doucher bosses out there)

Poor Work Ethic(Working Smart Isn't An Excuse For Half-Ass):

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Once again Lil Wayne, and our friend Suhaimi from Aidan Blog is right on the money. Working smart is often a lazy excuse for not wanting to work:

"I am pissed off by people with mediocre work ethics. There is a difference between not doing your job well because you hated it, and not doing your job well because you are lazy. The first group made a bad choice and have to live with the consequences. The second group is simply irredeemable. Lazy people pisses me off to no end. Incidentally, these are the people who complain the loudest about the "economy", about how "the government is doing nothing", and about how the boss is an asshole. No, you are the problem. Your work is shit and you are a liability to your employer. Mark my word, you will not get anywhere in life with that attitude. I will not be surprised to see you at the same desk after ten years, still bitter about being yelled at by the Boss who makes more in a month than you make in a year."

This whole "working smart" without working hard mindset is in itself bullshit. How are you going to build a large money making empire by just working smart, but not putting in a hard days work? The "work smart" advocates would have us believe that working hard is "working hard and not getting anything back."

If your work ethic is not intact, someone else is out there working harder than you, and will kick your ass when you meet.

Most people who don't want to work will do things like get-rich-quick schemes and make-money-online-by-doing-nothing-but-sitting-at-home-and-reading-emails type deals. I've always hated laziness but I've had it up to here with people who think it's cool to sit at home in their jammies and sit at a computer desk, thinking they can earn money that way.

So many people are damn stupid. Get your ass out of the couch, turn off the TV, go out and earn a living! Laziness undermines all the things I worked hard to develop in myself. Ideals like, do your best in everything you do, have a good attitude or leave, be focused on what you want and want it bad, be on the grind all the time. I'm sick of people who think they can make money by not working or by being half-assed.

"This idea that we're going to put in a half-assed effort and some how, by magic, come out on top. This is the disease of our society."

Work earlier and later than everyone else, do more than everyone else, care more about what you do than everyone else. Work far above the bar, harder than anyone else could demand from themselves. Astonish those around you, flabbergast your competition, destroy the lazy and then work to get better than yourself. Work harder than even the best work.

About the Author

Clinton Skakun is the lead writer for The Entrepreneur's Guide. Clinton is currently apart of a Calgary Web Design firm iDesignIt Web Design and a financial education venture. He derives what he learns from the business world and shares it in his articles.

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